Ferguson confrontation

Tens of thousands of surplus military battle uniforms, protective gear sets and heavy weapons have been stockpiled after military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Under a “weapons handover” scheme initiated by the Department of Homeland Security following September 11, these are now being handed over to state police.

As the ACLU noted: “If the federal government gives the police a huge cache of military-style weaponry, they are highly likely to use it, even if they do not really need to.”

War crimes? Heavily armed police take up position to control demonstrators who were protesting the killing of unarmed teenager Michael Brown on August 12, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. Brown was shot and killed by a police officer while he had his arms raised in surrender.Source: AFP

Chair of the Department of Criminal Justice at the State University of New York Dr. Tom Nolan recently wrote: “Many communities now look upon police as an occupying army … The trusting relationships so many police officers painstakingly built within their communities have been eroded by the mindset of the warrior cop.”

Then there was the case in Arizona where an Iraq veteran was shot 22 times while sitting in his kitchen. Then there was a seven-year-old girl who was shot by police in Detroit when she leapt out of her bed after it was set on fire by smoke grenades.

Stories such as these are generating growing public unrest.

Every year, billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment flows from the fed gov't to police depts. https://t.co/ZPMKwdpwtV

But as police forces invest more into equipping such units, the temptation is there to use them for ever more minor incidents.

In the 1980s, as few as 3000 SWAT raids were conducted in the United States each year. In 2005, that figure reached 45,000.

Heavy equipment ... An armoured personnel carrier at the scene of a recent siege on King William St, Adelaide. Picture: Tait Schmaal.Source: News Corp Australia

“People who have been charged with no crime aren’t only treated like they’re guilty; they’re made to endure a violent intrusion into their home based on the mere suspicion of low-level crimes,” Dr Nolan wrote. “To the victims of unnecessary SWAT raids and their communities, the idea that police are there to serve and protect them becomes a bad joke.”

Less than seven per cent of SWAT-team deployments were for hostage situations or armed offences.

And many raids were knowingly conducted against homes where children were known to reside.

The report had another unsurprising finding: The vast majority of such militaristic raids are against American Negros and Latinos.

Weapons of mass discipline ... Tactical officers used tear gas, batons and rubber bullets to try to disperse a large crowd protesting the police killing of an unarmed teen in Missouri. Source: APSource: AP

While vigorous in upholding the law, many American police appear to regard themselves to be above it.

Even the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been recently been taken to task for spying on the Senators responsible for monitoring its behaviour. It’s now actively attempting to censor a report into its own violations of torture laws and treaties.

Now, US Sheriff’s officers are finding new and inventive ways for their SWAT teams to avoid repercussions for raids-gone-wrong and the harming of innocents.

And that’s exactly what the “Land of the Free’s” long-suspicious anti-government, anti-regulation and anti-taxation movements have been warning against for centuries.

A powerful, unaccountable police state.

A militarised government which rules through fear.

It’s also a theme common in fiction, such as Fahrenheit 451, Judge Dredd and The Hunger Games.

Recently, a Massachusetts SWAT team managed to dodge Freedom of Information requests into its actions through claiming that they were not, in fact, a government agency. Instead they were a private corporation contracted to multiple police departments, and therefore held the right to commercial confidentiality.

Besides, who would dare go up against a small-town sheriff toting tanks and assault rifles anyway?

“This discriminatory and excessive use of SWAT teams turns the criminal justice system on its head and eviscerates the presumption of innocence, which is the hallmark of American justice.” Dr Nolan wrote.

Them against us?... A Missouri police officer wears surplus military combat webbing and uniform while engaging in a crowd control operation. Source: APSource: AFP

TIME FOR TRUST?

Even the United Kingdom — the last bastion of unarmed police strolling their community beats — is now beginning to militarise its law enforcement agencies.

Guns are seen slung on officer’s hips an shoulders for the first time as they walk among their communities. Only a few months ago, such weapons were in their patrol-car boots — or locked away in the barracks where the SWAT teams resided.

“Rather than reassuring us that we are safe and out of harm’s way, it creates a pervasive sense that we are unsafe and in danger, sometimes from the police themselves,” Dr Nolan says.

“Our streets and communities aren’t warzones, but the creeping militarisation of our police forces and the warrior mindset it creates has the feel of a self-fulfilling prophecy on the part of our nation’s law enforcement agencies.”

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